Chapter Twenty

“I brought you a gift.” Angel held out the store paper bag and fought hard to forget all that he’d already seen that night. He nearly growled as Spike continued to eye the package suspiciously until Angel—completely losing his temper—thrust it violently under his nose and dropped it.

Spike caught it before it fell past his hips, glaring at his once mentor, now pain in the ass grandsire.

“Geez, Peaches, you really shouldn’t have.” And then he opened the bag and a set of clear plastic earplugs fell out.

Angel looked slightly embarrassed as he ignored Buffy’s spontaneous chortle and stared at his shoes. They look scuffed and God that annoyed him.

“Thought you should have them on you, be prepared. You never know when the baby will get frightened and there is nothing worse for a girl than for her father’s head exploding because she’s a little scared. Thought it better to ruin your image than scar the girl for life.”

“Wow, Angel. I never knew you could be so thoughtful.” Buffy collapsed against Spike’s side with an attack of the giggles, grateful at least the earplugs weren’t pink or Spike would have attacked him and left not enough Angel to get out the door.

“Didn’t they bloody well come in something a little cooler than clear? Black maybe?” Spike actually pouted, knowing his days as the Big Bad were irrevocably over.

Buffy wrapped her arms around his waist, giving him a reassuring hug and hoping he was attuned enough to get her drift.

“We were about to take Lia for a walk to go buy some of those.” A jerk of her head indicated the earplugs to Giles—the only one who would look at her, despite his obvious discomfort.

He gasped indignantly. “This is the Hellmouth, Buffy. I don’t think it wise that the Slayer take an infant for a stroll after dark. What would you do with her if something attacked you?”

Buffy looked thoughtful. “You know, I haven’t been able to patrol for a while. Maybe the two grandpappy’s could baby-sit while Spike and I go out and do some eradicating of the evil.”

Giles suddenly darted nervous looks between the blonde couple and the baby all packed up ready and waiting in her pram for an outing. “Er, I, yes, that would probably be the most responsible thing to do.” He nodded his consent reluctantly before slowly moving toward the baby, his gaze intent and filled with misgivings.

“Don’t show the tyke fear, Watcher. They’re like snakes. Show the slightest weakness and they’ll have it over you for life.” Spike smirked as Buffy shot him a dirty look.

“Really, Giles, she’s easy. And I’m sure Angel must know something about babies.” Buffy missed his pained look and grabbed Spike’s hand instead, dragging him forcefully from the room. They paused at the entry while Buffy stocked up on weapons, thrusting a stake or two into Spike’s hand and then gave him a lascivious leer before almost running out of the door.

“Whoa there, pet. What’s the hurry?”

Buffy came to a screaming halt, her newly enlarged breasts heaving as she looked at Spike in horror.

“Patrol, Spike. You know, privacy, big wide open spaces, no baby and no Giles to watch you pound my ass.”

He did the head tilt and Buffy felt herself swoon right there in Giles’s courtyard. And then the tongue curling behind the teeth thing and she felt like mush. Felt like her panties had just been lit on fire and if she didn’t get him inside her soon she was going to self-combust.

It was the look of awe in his eyes that stopped her rush of lusty thoughts. Not completely, but toned their urgency down enough for her to really look at him.

Spike.

The demon who’d been after her throat for the better part of two years. The one vampire who’d had chance after chance to kill her, and she him. Their being together was so unlikely, and yet they fit together in ways she could never have imagined fitting with other men she’d met. Parker? Couldn’t see him raising a baby. And that was so weird it didn’t even bear thinking about.

As for Angel? Images of him seeing her get off from behind suddenly got her hot, and not so much in the voyeuristic kind of way—but much more in the ‘I miss Spike and nooky’ kind of way.

Buffy let her eyes wander down his body, fixing intently on his bulging jeans and knowing that if they didn’t get somewhere soon and make with the wild monkey loving, she wouldn’t be answerable to anyone.

Spike was hers now—in ways she’d never even thought possible with other guys. Not with Angel, and certainly not with Parker. And the thought of Riley never really got off the ground. He seemed nice enough, a little peculiar, but nowhere near the calibre of Spike. The vampire felt like he was made for her, and Buffy relished every little part of her body that fit him like a special made to order perfect fit leather glove.

And it was beyond time that she showed him how perfect they were together.

Ten minutes later and Spike was showing Buffy another way they meshed together. He had her back, he said, and yet he so had her front too. He was everywhere around her, bouncing like Tigger on speed amongst the pack of vamps that thought they could get it over the Slayer after her too lengthy absence. Five vamps fluttered on the wind, Buffy keeping her mouth closed against the dust as best she could as she watched Spike exude excitement.

Gahhh, just seeing him tied to Giles’ chairs had made her see his hotness—despite her determination to keep that epiphany unacknowledged. Now to see how he thrived on the kill—and this time of his own kind—got her far hotter than any warm-up they’d had so far.

Barely even pausing to check for other threats, Buffy jumped him, her teeth latching onto his throat and biting hard as a hand almost ripped the buttons off his jeans in a white hot frenzy of lust. She needed to feel it in her hand, the thick pulsing desperation of his cock as he throbbed in her hand, all the while imagining how it would similarly throb inside her.

She ripped his tee straight down the middle, sharp teeth now claiming a nipple and nibbling as her tongue laved and worshipped his skin.

“Buffy, love? Slow down a little,” Spike panted out, but before he could get the words to sink past Buffy’s haze she’d sunk down hard on his cock. That sensation did it to him every time—the feeling of her pussy lips parting over the head of his cock, barely the tip submerged in her heat as he stretched her wide, and then the hard surge and she was down on him fully, squeezing and moaning out her pleasure and his torment.

“Oh baby,” Spike crooned as Buffy rode him, his hands finding her naked flesh underneath the short skirt that wisped around his hips. The cold of the ground cushioned him as Buffy gouged great fistfuls of turf on either side of his head. Spike watched as her face was tight in pleasure; little whimpers slipping passed her lips each time his cock struck serious internal gold.

Spike watched his woman bounce on his cock, a feeling of pure happiness flushing his skin. It was something so new that he’d almost forgotten his entire past, ready to catapult into this new existence with everything he had. Nearly forgotten—until a whiff of something so irritating had him suck in his cheeks in exasperation.

The silly bint just didn’t know when to pack her bags and get the hell out. And here he was thinking she’d grown a set when she flung him out of the lair and melted all his vinyl. If it was anyone but Harris who’d told that tale under a cloud of hysterical laughter, Spike would have been apt to forget about the chip and rip the bloody wanker’s head off anyway. But now she was here, and instead of infuriating him, Spike played it up. Groaned louder, tore through Buffy’s top to bury his face in succulent fleshy tits, moaned his mate’s name for everyone in any moderate vicinity to hear.

A combination of his pounding cock against her sensitive spot, his hands squeezing her breast tissue and his mouth sucking viciously on her nipple, sent her over the edge. Spike crowed while Buffy writhed desperately, screaming his name as her insides gushed around him, joined almost immediately by his own burst of euphoria.

Buffy collapsed against his chest, lovingly exhausted. Her sated giggle clashed with a frustrating whine and Buffy whipped her head up horrified as she tried to pull the tattered remains of her shirt together.

“Spikey, what the hell are you doing? You do know that’s the Slayer, right?” Harmony stood over them, her perfectly fashionable shoe—for anywhere but a graveyard—tapping angrily at them.

“Well, yeah,” he said as if talking to an idiot. “I only tried to kill her a heap of times. Think I know who she is.” And then he shot a self-indulgent smile simply bursting with love and satisfaction at the woman who still held pride of place around his cock. “She’s a bloody marvel, Harm. This ‘ere is my lady love, my companion for eternity.”

Spike couldn’t take his eyes off her as the truth of it finally sunk in. His lover for the rest of their lives. She’d accepted him, wanted him, taken him in a way that no other woman had. He’d been used his entire existence, but Buffy as Slayer was hardly likely to join herself to him forever if he didn’t mean something to her. The importance of it took his unneeded breath away.

“Got myself a family now, Harm. So bugger off.” And he dismissed her from his mind as easily as if she was suddenly dust, despite her still standing over the top of them, clinging for all she was worth to something she’d never really had.

“What do you mean, Blondie Bear? She still has a heartbeat. How can she be your eternal anything?”

Buffy glared at the pouting blond, feeling angry that her fun had been side-tracked.

“Would you just go?” she spat and then when Harmony looked ready to burst out of her fangs, Buffy started to undulate over Spike’s thickening cock, loving the feel of him as he stretched and slithered up and down inside her. Then, in hopes of really getting the message across, Buffy let go of her shirt, letting her breasts fall free and tipping her head back, breathing in the lust in the air that their sex created.

Both were unaware as Harmony moved angles, finding herself standing too close to Spike’s head as she goggled at Buffy’s breasts.

“No freaking way. She had a boob job. But Spikey, mine are real.” Harmony ripped her own shirt open, her overly abundant breasts spilling forth and shocking Spike so much he laughed hysterically.

Buffy slapped him as she grabbed up her discarded stake, jealousy making the fire in her eyes burn a dangerous heat.

“If you don’t get your skanky ass out of my sight in two seconds flat, the boobies you are so fond of will be nothing but dust mites. Capiche?”

Spike roared, his eyes blinking at Harmony’s tits as he jerked under Buffy, loving the friction and the bounce of her breasts. His fangs craved her and before either of the girls could react, Spike was sucking on sweet slayer ambrosia.

With a tortured wail, Harmony flounced off, face buried in her hands and her heavy breasts bobbing up and down.

Spike stared up at his goddess with a wealth of emotion swimming in suddenly watery eyes, his lips still cracked against a deluge of hysterical laughter. Her pussy tightened around him unexpectedly and he could see on Buffy’s face it hadn’t been intentional. One hard upthrust and they were both coming in amidst ecstatic screams and giggles.

As Buffy collapsed for the second time on his torso, Spike offered a sigh of thanks to whoever gave them such a gift as each other. And the little one that had so completely altered both their paths. He thought that some Powers were probably high on some serious drug intake, but whatever it was, Spike was grateful.

As he curled an arm around his Buffy and got busy to nibbling her lips, he determined to never let her go. He’d found bliss in the most unlikely place—the Hellmouth.

This world was bloody all right in his book.
 

Chapter Twenty-One

“Where’s the powder?”

“How the hell should I know? Do you need powder?”

Silence.

“Perhaps cream?”

“I’m not touching…here, cream. Good luck to you.”

Sounds of disgust.

“What the hell do they feed this kid? That can’t be human.”

“Well, she is half-demon. Maybe theirs is special.”

“And thank you very much for that subtle reminder. How did I become grandfather to a half-demon with a vampire son-in-law? The world obviously stopped spinning and I am now burning up at the rate of knots in the middle of space somewhere.”

“Hey, get it together. We’re only changing a diaper. We still have to—”

“It’s called a nappy, you pillock. Anyone with half a brain knows that you are an Irishman. Where you picked up these namby-pamby Americanisms is beyond me.”

“Hey! It’s called being immortal for over two centuries. And living in America. You pick up stuff.”

“Oh yes, picking up stuff. Not to mention becoming a traitor to your Mother Country. I mean, even Spike—”

“Hey! How about we leave Spike out of this. Unless you want to get into how he’s now your son-in-law.”

“Well, it’s not like I’m likely to ever forget now, is it? Not with little Ophelia being pushed into my care on a regular basis.”

“Well, how do you know they won’t decide to move to LA and make me the new nanny?”

“Because she’s the bloody Slayer and this is the Hellmouth. Only way Buffy would end up asking you to be a nanny is over Spike’s dusty remains, and now that they’ve mated, I hardly see that occurring.”

The bitter battle was ended as a loud pounding on the door broke through their rising ire. Giles looked at what he’d accomplished with the nappy, passed the baby to his lumbering and totally useless sidekick, bellowed to the visitor to ‘hold onto your knickers’ and went to wash his hands thoroughly and with much soap.

“Hold your bloody horses,” he grumbled irritably as he finally reached the door, opening it onto a fuming Joyce.

“What the hell is going on? I leave for a week and suddenly my nineteen year old daughter is a mother? What is this? The Mouth of Hell?” Her face was pink, her eyes wild, and then her eyes fell onto the little bundle of squirming joy writhing in Angel’s arms.

“Awwww, is that my granddaughter? Give her to me,” she demanded, her voice almost feral as she forced the vampire to surrender the child to her before she was tempted to do something drastic.

Angel didn’t argue, handing the baby over right as her diaper fell off.

Joyce glared at him—as if it was his fault that Giles couldn’t get the idea of one of those little sticky strap thingies—and rushed her back to the table to fix her up properly.

And then she got a good look at her. Stunning blue eyes stared at her, intense even in their youth, and skin a light olive and hair a mousy blond. She was the picture of baby gorgeousness, and Joyce just gave in to the cooing expected of her new grandmotherly status.

It was her infuriated silence that had them spilling about the situation, Giles trying to keep the status of Buffy’s now marriage-like lifestyle a little less vulgar than how he’d stumbled onto the notion, but thank Angel and his jealous mouth. Joyce heard it all, asked questions, and then told them to sit. They were forced to remain seated as she clucked over the baby, feeding her the bottle Buffy had left and then playing until she slept.

If either man dared move while they waited for her daughter and newly mated vampire returned home, they knew which appendage would be going on permanent vacation.

Once the bottle of scotch was liberated from a cupboard within reach of Giles’ chair, the two men settled in for the wait.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Buffy couldn’t get those melons out of her brain. The shape, the way they curved and the perfect pink bud that just jutted out there, begging to be sucked. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she couldn’t let go of the image of Spike doing exactly that. To a brainless skank like Harmony. It turned her stomach.

She knew she had no right, but Buffy couldn’t help the pout that settled on her lips, ignoring for the moment the layer of sweat that now covered her entire body. Ignoring the state of her nudity as she straddled a hardening Spike in the middle of a public cemetery.

“You weren’t really attracted to her because of her boobs, were you?”

Spike looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

“Are you losing your marbles? What other reason could one possibly find attractive about Harm?”

The answer rode Buffy’s hormones like nothing else and she slapped him across the chest, tears webbing her lashes together.

“You big dumb guy. You should never have gone out with her. She’s a skanky ho and now you’re mine and she has big boobs that won’t go all saggy because she’s a vamp and she can stay young and gorgeous and how could you shag something like that anyway?” Her breath ran out just as the tears broke free and rolled down her cheeks.

“Um, pet? You’re immortal now, yeah? Your boobs won’t sag and you won’t get old. You’ll be just as sexy and gorgeous in a hundred years as Harm will be. More. Because she’ll get herself dusted soon enough and someone who’s brain dead doesn’t remain attractive after you’re bored with her body.”

So the wrong thing to say.

“So, you’re gonna get bored with my body? ‘Cause what have I got to offer? I’m just a slayer with a passing grade in everything because I’m too tired to study and now I’m a mom and God, how am I going to be a good example for Lia when I haven’t even been to school much this week. I can’t leave you long enough because I crave you touching me and need you inside me and—”

He pulsed inside of her, his cock fattening up again as she sobbed her concerns out to him. Emotional bloody females. She was going to drive him barmy. As if he would dump one dumb blond for another. Buffy was many many things that Harmony Kendall could never dream of being. Coherent and not bloody annoying for one.

And he loved her. He could never say that for the blond bimbo who thought it perfectly natural to flash her tits in the hopes of enticing him back. Bint was off her tree if she thought rotund gratuitous flesh was going to suck him in when he had a woman who was full of sustenance for his child. And remembering Buffy’s status only made his cock swell tighter. He could easily get off just on the thought of Buffy in his life. He didn’t feel the hassle of foreplay with her, he relished it. With Harm it was a job, a duty to get his own payback. With Buffy, it was his new religion.

As he pulled her body closer to his, let his tongue stroke a long lick of her tears from her cheek, he let his lips find hers. And hoped that the slow sincerity and love he felt could be passed on through a kiss.

Because she was one kick from insanity if she ever thought he’d want Harmony over what he had with her.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“That bitch. How dare she think she can steal my Blondie Bear. He’s mine.” Harmony’s voice warbled sadly as one of her new crew started licking her toes. “I mean, I devoted my life to him, and he just chewed me up and spat me out whenever he felt like it.”

“Um, I thought you threw him out when he came crawling back last time. You know, when you went all arsonist on the guy’s vinyl.”

Harmony glared at the guy working his tongue up her leg. “That is so not the point and you know it. I was just trying to show him I could be tough. How was I supposed to know he’d been picked up and chipped like a common little vamp? I mean, I have a reputation you know.”

“Yeah babe, you got one of those alright.” The vampire latched onto her juicy clit and teased her mercilessly, hoping he could get her to pass out for just five minutes so he could go out and get some real action. If not he’d just have to wait until she got tired of him and beckoned to the next poor vamp in line.

Harmony rolled her hips up and started grabbing at her breasts through her top. Then she stopped, suddenly kicking her vamp toy away and whipped off her shirt, contemplating her perky breasts like they held the cure for cancer. Except, hello! Vamp now. What did cancer even mean to her these days?

“These are pretty, right? I mean, I have good boobies, right?”

“Oh, very fuckable tits. Come here and I’ll show you.”

As she felt the rub of cock between the globes of her flesh, Harmony stayed distracted. What she needed was a plan. One to get her Spikey away from the major mistake that was his relationship with the Slayer. She just needed something he’d want and would never leave her for.

Pity she’d melted all his favourite records.
 

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Buffy Anne Summers!”

Buffy jumped as soon as her name was screeched at her from inside Giles’ place, the sudden appearance of her mother on top of her disturbing confrontation with nude Harmony just one more fright she wasn’t ready for. And her full name? Oh boy, this sounded bad.

“Mom? What are you doing back so soon?” It was a brave attempt to brazen it out, to conveniently let slip from her own mind what exactly she’d been doing the last time she was talking to her mother. And whoa, she got back from her trip fast!

“Don’t you take that tone with me, young lady. What on earth were you thinking, leaving my granddaughter with these two…well, maybe not idiots exactly but neither of them really have experience with babies. They could have done major damage while you were out killing vampires and such. No, you’re a mother now. Spike will have to take over the slaying while you look after this gorgeous little angel.” Joyce was beaming at the babe in her arms, then swiftly transferred an overjoyed acceptance to her daughter and the vampire that had whipped her up in more knots that Angel had rope.

Joyce couldn’t help but appear stunned at how good they looked together. Buffy with her windswept hair and grass covered jeans—the stain’s origin something that Joyce was turning a very blind eye to—and the punk looking rocker vamp that couldn’t keep a gentle smile on his lips if he could favour the world with a smirk. Joyce could admit that even that horrible night of the apocalypse years ago, the one where this pair had tried to convince her they played in a band together, she’d noticed something between them. A little awkward in the beginning stages perhaps, but there was already some kind of zing that could have implicated them for this.

It had always felt like a shock that Spike had been out to kill Buffy. Joyce had found that side of Spike hard to believe, a little like he was trying too hard. She could see for sure now that it was a bit of a joke—even if he hadn’t known it at the time.

“Um, sorry? We had to…patrol, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for Giles to play grandpa. He did think Lia was his baby. We just didn’t want him to go getting jealous about her being ours now.” Buffy tried hard to control the hint of teen whine that wanted her to give in to immaturity…but focusing on her new job of motherhood came in handy for all sorts of situatuions.

“Jealous? Why I…suppose I do feel a little bit left out. It’s not every day a man gets lied to and thinks he has a…a…baby to be responsible for.” Giles hung his head, the weight of dejection hanging heavily upon his shoulders.

“Awwww, don’t worry, Giles. Spike and I will make sure you get loads of Lia time, and all the stuff we bought for her, well…I can’t really see us being able to pay that back. But that’s the pleasure of being a Grandpappa.” Buffy patted her Watcher comfortingly on the shoulder, her mother looking on in steadfast approval.

Joyce spied the other family member as he shot a self-satisfied smile at the only human male in the room and her lips tightened in annoyance. She had no idea what it was about that vampire, but he rubbed her well and truly up the wrong way. But then she saw a way to wipe that smug look off his face and she charged in, plans flying through her mind at a dizzying rate.

“And I’m sure Uncle Angel has lots to offer the new family.” Her eyes glinted with menace as she stared him down, waiting for the one little attempt to argue himself out of it.

Angel looked at her determination and wondered why the hell he thought he could ever take on either Summers women and win? That Spike had and apparently came out with both of them admiring him just highlighted how clueless he’d been.

“Fine,” he huffed gloomily. “What if I sell the mansion and you guys can have the proceeds to buy something close by?”

He was heartened slightly by Buffy’s excited hug, but the very real danger to his parts came from the ferally abrasive vamp trying to say in terms both Angel and Angelus could recognise: ‘Spike’s’. Angel had lost all right to even the most meaningless acts of affection with the woman he loved. If that wasn’t a curse worse than his soul, he didn’t know what was.

“Thanks, Pops. Right decent and generous of you,” Spike grudgingly admitted through gritted teeth.

Angel nodded; any good mood he might have had on the entrance to Sunnydale was dealt an awful blow almost every single minute he remained. He shoved his hands in his pockets, almost crowing in unaccustomed enthusiasm when his fingers curled around his car keys.

“Oh look, must be time I started back to LA. I’m sure you guys have lots to talk about.”

And before Joyce could clap her favourable response to that decision, he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him.

Lia chose to make her presence known then, screaming out loud for her parents and didn’t stop until her daddy took her into his arms and began to sing the baby some soft blues, morphing quickly into muted punk as soon as he caught the amused gaze of his mate.

Joyce watched as Buffy grinned indulgently before seemingly being magnetically drawn to the side of her family. Despite her concerns about Buffy’s age and her schooling, Joyce couldn’t help but be taken in by the pure beauty of the sight.

Buffy’s hand settled around Spike’s waist, her head resting on his shoulder as he entertained their daughter. A bare flickering of awareness that her mother was still in the room, and that her Watcher had seen way too much of her this past night, didn’t even concern Buffy as she allowed them to see her cosied up to her vampire mate. The man she was going to spend eternity with. She waited for the drop in her stomach that would prove her reluctance to grasp that idea—but it never came. The thought of spending even a second away from Spike now was painful. And Lia was fast becoming the pure light of her life.

Now that some of the stresses of finances seemed taken care of, in the long term at least, Buffy could feel the stress flow out of her body—worries disappearing that she hadn’t really been aware of being burdened with. Not surprising really, as thoughts of enthusiastic marathon sex with her vampire lover had taken over much of her mind.

Having Giles back caused a bit of a dilemma for the night, though. She and Spike had made themselves pretty well at home in his room, in his bed, and Buffy couldn’t see how they could move everything to her mother’s at this time of night.

“Oh, hey. Giles, you won’t mind sleeping on the couch tonight, right? And Mom, is it okay for us to move in for a while until Angel comes through about selling the mansion?”

Joyce couldn’t wipe the dreamy look from her face, knowing that she was probably going to regret it soon enough but knowing nothing happier than being a grandmother and having her family all together under her roof.

“Of course. I can’t imagine anything could be better.”

She ignored Rupert’s spluttered warnings as he reefed off his glasses and practically dived up the stairs to retrieve his bag. “If it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition, Joyce, would you mind very much if I stayed at your house tonight? I suspect that, er, Buffy and Spike might have some…i-issues to sort through.”

Joyce shared with him a horrified look and quickly backed away to the door. Stories of almost uncontrollable urges between newly mated couples finally began to form pictures in her brain and as she watched Buffy’s hand disappear under Spike’s black tee, she felt the wisdom of getting out quick. She was only wishing that she could alter her invitation to the couple of earlier. Because better? That would be to remain in ignorance that her daughter was having sex.

“I’m not opening the gallery tomorrow, so how about Rupert and I look after Lia while you two bundle up everything and get started on moving house?”

Buffy enthusiastically agreed to the plan even as she hustled them toward the door. When the catch clicked shut, leaving Joyce and Giles staring at the closed door in surprise, Buffy almost ran back to her mate and started sucking on his neck.

“Is she asleep?” she took the time to ask even as a hand began to tug at his belt.

“That she is, pet. Stay here while I take her up to bed.” Spike stopped and looked at the flush of lust on Buffy’s face and felt his hardness press powerfully against the fabric of his jeans. “Might want to get comfortable, because I’m going to have you in all sorts of positions soon enough.”

Buffy shuddered at the promise in his voice, all her base needs to slow down and be a practical, responsible slayer and mother diving out the window as soon as Spike looked at her body and winked.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Despite not having seen her in class, one Riley Finn was convinced that Buffy Summers would show up at this frat party. Her friend was there after all. Seated on the couch, looking a little sad balanced with a hefty pinch of ho-hum, but there. And usually wherever the redhead went, the blonde was there too.

Buffy.

He felt King of Foolish and jittery around her, picking up just from the smallest contact that there was something very special about her. Something he really wanted to touch, and he didn’t just mean her body, though that would be a definite bonus. No, he felt a real, sincere attraction to her that he thought, given the chance to grow, could be love.

When the party had gotten into full swing and Willow still hadn’t left the couch she was wallowing on, Riley felt it time to make some inquiries, even if he was so nervous he wanted to swallow his tongue.

“Hey. Willow, right?” He held out his hand and flinched when she eyed it hesitantly before finally shaking it in a short, abrupt manner and then dropped it like a hot potato.

“Yup. Willow. Great party.”

Yeah, he could tell she was really digging it by the shimmering tears and the not moving all night. But he was a man on a mission, and he’d noticed the way she was watching the door.

“You waiting for someone?”

Willow jerked at the question, eyes suddenly wary as she studied him.

“Nope. Not really. All Alone Girl right now.”

“Oh.” And suddenly he felt guilty. Did she think he was interested in her? Carefully sitting beside her—but keeping just enough room so as to not give the wrong impression—he wondered if he was going to be upsetting her by asking about her friend. But these things had to start somewhere, and he was head over for the little blonde. If he could just find out where she was.

“So, that Buffy’s a funny girl, huh?”

Willow eyed him suspiciously before finally slumping against the back of the couch with a slow shake of her head. “Uhuh.”

Riley was momentarily stumped. The redhead wasn’t giving him much to spring from so all he had to work with was the obvious.

“Will she be coming tonight?”

The straightforward approach might have been a bit much—a bit of a miscalculation as Willow’s eyes bugged and she grinned at him.

“I’m really sorry, Riley. But you’ll get nowhere with Buffy. She’s kinda…busy these days, and in a really really serious relationship.” If nothing else, Willow seemed to perk up a little at the TA’s interest in Buffy. Even if she didn’t have eyes in her head, the knowledge that her friend was totally caught up in the lustiness of Spike—which she was in no way wigged about, really—would have been as obvious as the endiness that was her own relationship with Oz. Which kinda brought back the total suckiness of the evening and her wonder that she was even sitting there. Going and watching Spike coo at the baby would have been far more fun. Okay, calling that fun might have been a stretch…but ooh, watching Xander tie his tongue in knots while trying not to comment over Buffy’s new cleavage could have been a hysterical bit of light heartedness. It just might have taken her mind off the misery of being single in a couples world.

Caught up now in her own wave of depression, Riley watched as his presence receded totally from the redhead’s interest and wondered how he could be so unlucky as to fall for a girl who’d dived into a serious relationship. His timing was always way off.

His heart felt a piercing split and he sat back on the couch shocked. He had no chance and that just didn’t sit right—made him feel like all kinds of an idiot for putting so much energy into liking such a kooky girl.

The second another blonde walked through the frat house doors, his mind skidded to a sudden stop on his grief and his heart started to beat another interested rhythm. Sunnydale seemed to have quite its share of beautiful blonde’s and he was not the kind of guy who would lose out twice. This time he’d make an impact—and not be brained by a tower of falling textbooks in the process.

One swift move designed to look as graceful as he could be and he was standing across the room and in direct line of the buxom stunner. He was suddenly so enamoured that he didn’t even notice her flirty giggle or her inane chatter as her eyes rested on him in interest.

Buffy who?
 

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Are you sure this doesn’t make me look like a git?” Spike stood with his arms on his hips, feet apart and baby Lia dangling from his chest in a baby sling. He was scowling at Buffy, just daring her to laugh at him so he could show her how big and bad he still could be.

“Oh no, not even a little. You look cute.” Buffy licked her lips at her lover in the perfect imitation of a sex-starved nympho and then quickly turned into the cemetery gates, careful to keep her snickering silent.

Spike huffed angrily. “Cute? I bloody well do not look cute. Master vampire here, luv. Destroy my rep to look cute.”

“Oh you got that right, bub! Look fellas, it’s William the Bloody Awful Babysitter. We’re gonna enjoy taking you down. Your little charge there will make a delicious entrée—” Ringleader Guy flaked to the ground as Buffy twirled her stake in satisfaction. The crowd that he’d led into the patrolled graveyard looked at Buffy in fear. With their sire suddenly gone—before most of them could even blink and certainly before any of them could process the tragedy—Buffy had shouted ‘Boo’ and they’d raced off in every direction but home in a mix of primal fear and knowledge. Lacking direction, they crashed into each other and took so long to flee that both Spike and Buffy had managed to dust each and every one without breaking a sweat.

“Well, saved the reputation for another night. I think that’s cause for a little celebration.” Spike leered at Buffy’s tightly clothed body and wondered what exactly he could get away with. And how quickly he could get her to go indoors so he could take off the criss-crossed threat to his manhood.

“No way, Mister. You’ve got baby duty so no dirty exercising in the cemetery.” She smiled though, and Buffy could feel the hunger that lived with her hourly now to show him that her feelings hadn’t changed. Would never change.

However, patrol was in the happening and Buffy couldn’t put it off any longer. She’d let too many days go by while she lost herself in her new feelings and family. She was the Slayer and had a duty, and now that she had a daughter to protect, keeping the Hellmouth under reasonable control was of major importance.

Spike took up the slack behind her, his lip all pouty even as he hummed his version of punk music to his gurgling daughter and being careful not to let Buffy catch him smiling at Lia any of the times she turned suddenly to see what he was doing.

They were diligent, though, keeping both sets of eyes scanning the surrounds for danger, using latent senses to keep them in the know of any evil that might be lurking about. They’d hit a stumbling block with the babysitting before they’d left. No one was available, and while that thought was a little worrying, so was the link that wouldn’t allow the adults to remain apart from each other and their child. The bond was too new, too strong to let anything keep them from each other. But that didn’t mean they didn’t recognise the danger of taking a baby out at night on the Hellmouth. It just meant that they were lucky to have superpowers to help keep them safe.

Despite being alert, one single vampire seemed to slip by their vigilance and attempted an attack.

“I got it, love,” called Spike as he jumped into the fray, Lia squealing her excitement as her bleach-haired daddy kicked his opponent in the balls and punched him in his distorted face. “Take that, you ignorant bastard. Don’t you know it’s bloody beyond evil to attack a bloke with a baby on board.” That seemed to tickle Spike’s fancy, and with a flick of his wrist he turned his back on the tumble of ash as he tossed the suggestion to Buffy. “Hey, pet. We need one of those bumper stickers for the car.”

Buffy chuckled on ahead. Big Bad my ass, she thought snidely.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

There was definitely something tickling at his subconscious, but he just couldn’t tear his hands away from her breasts. The first thing he’d done once he’d made Harmony’s acquaintance was to try to convince her to get her top off. Once he’d achieved that, there was no going back. Tight pink nipples hardened and protruded from his touch, enticing his tongue to flick and teeth to bite as his hands squeezed the luscious plumpness of them. His hand cupped around the curve of each, his mouth working the nubs and his cock swelled to almost unbearable pain as he rubbed it gently against her crotch. She was wet, he could feel it and it made him even more excited, knowing that he had it right here. Had the hot flesh of woman at the mercy of his fingertips.

That was it!

There was no hot flesh. He could feel the squishy wetness of her pussy seeping through her underwear, could feel her body react to him, but he couldn’t feel any heat from her skin and he couldn’t feel any heartbeat under his face as he dived into the pillow softness of her breasts.

Oh God.

He, Riley Finn, demon hunter and Initiative officer, had brought home his very own vampire. She was pretty—even if everything out of her mouth was completely clueless and blonde. As her hands reached to release his cock from his pants he had to wonder how much it mattered. Oh sure, he felt ashamed that he couldn’t sense her a mile off and wondered how good he was as a soldier if he couldn’t even keep up his vampire intolerance while he had one about to take him into her body. Anyone would, he was sure of it. But with his cock throbbing and her hand curled around him and leading him to rub against her sodden panties, he couldn’t remember what procedure dictated for this kind of situation. If there was a procedure. Was he meant to dust her? Not that he could. She may lack the warmth of a human body, but she was pretty damn capable in the ways that mattered to him this second.

Totally consumed by lust, Riley barely even noticed the amber eyes flickering as Harmony moaned and rolled him over, allowing herself better access. She grinned at him flirtatiously as she bent her head and sucked his length down her throat.

“Mmmm, yummy. Like a lollypop.” And she proceeded to slurp him stupid, mewling and moaning around his turgid cock while subtly ripping her own panties off.

Riley was trying not to jerk up into her throat, trying to control the urges that wanted him to plow into her deep and never let her pry her throat muscles off him. Instead he felt air, and then her slippery coldness around the unbearable fever of his cock and he shouted out at the sensation.

“Oh baby, ride me. Jump on my cock, let me be your wild Bronco, baby.”

She giggled and he felt not even the slightest bit silly, completely taken over by the fuck of a lifetime. He had no idea if any human had ever willingly done it with a vampire—as far as he knew they were animals and couldn’t take anyone with approval. They forced and tortured and raped as they went.

Just as he was about to spurt his cum high up in her pussy, she leaned down and bit him, a flash of concern felt only briefly as her fangs plundered his vein and a burst of euphoria lit him up for a second blow like a rocket at take off.

“Holy fuck,” he gasped out, his body weakening by degrees as she slurped noisily at his blood.

Harmony still bounced, her wet walls helping him slip in and out smoothly until she reached the same high and she quivered around him, her mouth finally releasing her grip on his neck as she panted and whimpered and grunted like an animal being attacked.

It was only the start—the bite and the sounds doing more for the soldier’s libido than anything had done in years. Not since he’d been a horny teenager and innocent little Mary-Sue surrendered her virginity to him and he’d unravelled an enthusiastic instigator of the more risky sides of sex.

He’d just stuck it to a vampire—one with an amazing body and who seemed to worship his own in ways he’d never have expected. He had the feeling that there was no coming back from this. Feeling her fangs in his body had unleashed a need he’d never known could exist and now he had a whole different perspective on the mission. On the animals he was told to kill or capture.

Around the fourth time that night, Riley came up with a plan. He’d keep Harmony safe, not quite his pet, but close. He’d keep the Initiative away from her, let her exist in peace—but only as long as she wasn’t killing the residents of Sunnydale—and he’d nightly fuck her into the ground. There’d never been a better arrangement. He knew he’d be punished if his superiors ever found out, but it was a risk he was willing to take. Wouldn’t be the first time a man had sacrificed the mission for a bit of skirt.

It was almost dawn when they stopped, exhausted. Harmony slumped on his chest, her finger trailing over a muscular bicep to linger at her marks at his throat. She pouted up at him, her big lips all the more succulent to Riley’s exhausted mind.

“I don’t want to kill you. You taste too good to let you go.” She confided in him like she was a child and he was the one who had the power of making her decisions.

It was perfect for what he had in mind.

“You don’t want to kill me. Not when I can do this for you.” His hand settled in her damp curls, his finger fumbling for the button that had made her writhe earlier.

She bit her lip and looked at him carefully, contemplating. Then the seriousness vanished and she’d decided something without letting anything slip.

“Okay.”

There was just enough time for one…more…hard….
 

Chapter Twenty-Four

Riley couldn’t deny that he looked a little pale. Not that he was complaining. The buzz he got while he was deep inside his new girlfriend and she was deep inside of him—well, it was indescribable. He’d thought he’d tame her—and he had to a degree. But the real slave in this relationship was him. He couldn’t deny he’d do anything and everything to feel the frantic fear and high from having his blood drained from his exhausted veins.

So it was that as vacuous as Harmony may be, her lack of attempts to drain him completely dry had him settling into an unpredictable trust of her. He thought he was falling hard, though even he failed to argue that the substance behind the emotion was purely based on the fix he got from her bite. Still, if he had strong feelings for her, no matter what their basis was, the fact that she was by his side, in his bed, must mean she was falling for him too. He knew she was a vampire, but she experienced other emotions—hate, anger, joy at anything he bought her in pink, her unicorn hobby. Surely she was capable of love as well. There was that whole thing where he still possessed his heartbeat. It had to count for something.

They’d talked, sure they had. In between the amazing bouts of sex. He still marvelled at her stamina—was left wondering if it was a vamp thing or if it was just because it was her. But most of the topics they fell into were superficial—if he liked where they put the new boutique in the mall, had he seen the pink dress in the window, was he sure she couldn’t eat the sales assistant. Nothing he’d need to challenge his morality about—not really. Not when a simple ‘no’ held her fangs away from the public.

But each time she kissed him, each time she sucked him off, each time she bit him, he fell a little deeper. The thought of losing her now was too much to bear. So when her pain hit his ears, her sobbing admission that the worst thing about being undead was that she could never have a baby of her own, he just about melted. It was so romantic—and sick if he took more than a minute to contemplate it.

“It’s so wrong, you know,” she told him, her voice all wobbly and wet. “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t give Spike the best bunch of months of my life. Yet he gets all the happy. He gets Buffy, and a baby as well. I want that baby. It should be mine. I want to be a mommy. You can help me, can’t you Rileykins?” Her voice was all crumbly with grief and Riley fell for it hook, line and very heavy cement slab.

He felt flushed that she was calling him pet names, could feel the link that was tying them together tighten and hold them fast. She wanted a family—with him. He was gratified, and not a little scared. But he had to do it or she’d take her teeth away. He could be a daddy, and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be saving an infant from an evil vampire. And what kind of freak was called Spike anyway?

But Buffy. So this was the big love and the reason she’d been MIA for a week. She was holed up with some evil animal playing families. Or at least he assumed she was playing at being a mom. Though with the addition of the evil vampire Spike as her love interest, he hardly thought it was possible. While Buffy had without doubt appeared to be peculiar, she was also sweet and pretty and an obviously misleading individual. There was no excuse other than that she must be evi,l and he wouldn’t be doing his duty if he didn’t do everything he could to save an innocent child from what horrors the two of them might be inflicting.

No, he hadn’t reported Harm to his boss, but he was fulfilling his duty by keeping her on a pig diet. Now he could protect the citizens of Sunnydale by saving this baby from the clutches of two seriously deranged individuals. It didn’t even occur to him to wonder where they may have gotten the baby from in the first place, only that by the end of the night, the bundle would be laying in Harm’s arms, with him standing dutifully by her side.

Decision made, he turned to the naked wet dream before him and stroked a roughened palm over her dusky nipple, feeling almost light-headed at her little moan. His finger continued a determined path down her body, sliding seductively over her cool lines until he encountered her slipperiness.

“You want a baby, Baby?” He grinned as she purred and propped her leg on his for a little better access.

“There’s nothing I want more in the world, smoochikins. Can I have one? Please?” She pouted and batted her heavily mascaraed lashes as a small drop of a tear slid down her cheek.

His fingers were submerged, thick with her juice as he moved over her to take his own ride. Sure, he’d get her the baby, and his reward would be pussy on tap and a family. So what if he could never show them off in the day.

“What ever you want. Your Rileykins will get you anything you want.” And in a massive example of presumption, he shoved his cock in deep till she was whimpering in mingled pain and pleasure.

His life was about to get perfect.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Honey, can you pass the toiletries?”

Spike aimed a dirty look at the Slayer and passed her a number of jars, canisters and tubes—which she shoved thoughtlessly into a bag—before showing his ire by flopping backwards on the bed. He knew the Watcher wanted his digs back, could even understand the bloke’s need to touch base back in his own home after such an emotionally exhausting and fruitless trip. Didn’t mean he had to like the time it dug into his own more pleasurable pursuits. He was starting to feel a little underappreciated and while Buffy had been working him over something fierce, he was in the mood again and it didn’t do his temper any good to have to forgo nooky by being on exclusive babysitting duty.

Not that he didn’t love his daughter. Or wasn’t totally devoted to her—as he should be. It was just, well, he was a master vampire. He could bloody multitask if the situation required. They’d been doing that all week. It was going to be tough getting used to Buffy not being at his beck and call each time an itch began to need a scratch.

“You sure you’ll be okay alone here with Lia? You know, without me?” The saucy bint had the nerve to grin, knowing she was pushing his amorous buttons by being feisty.

Spike straightened from the bed, looking her curves over and leering as he stalked closer. “You want me to tell you I can’t? Because we both know I do the nanny thing much better than you, pet.” He bit his lip and tilted his head to watch her and wasn’t disappointed when her lip jutted out in a famous Buffy pout.

“Do not,” she answered petulantly, and when he had the bad taste to laugh, she kicked him in his shin.

“Want me to prove it?” he teased and chuckled again when Buffy whimpered in sudden worry.

“No way. I have to take these things over to my mom’s or we won’t have anywhere to sleep tonight.” She took a backward step to the door, eyes warily watching Spike for any subtly broadcasted moves.

“Oh, I don’t think we’ll be doing much of that, luv. Got my mind fixated on one thing and it’s not the image of you in your Yummy Sushi PJs.”

Buffy stood still, her eyes glazing over at the lustful promise before she took mental charge and shook the heat from her skin.

“You stop that!” she begged, taking another step closer to the door and freedom from horny vampires.

Spike slumped, defeated. “Right then. Best be off. Sooner you get cracking, the sooner I can—“ He jumped her, tackling her to the floor and bestowing haphazard kisses all over her neck and delving below the neckline of her top.

“Stop,” Buffy squealed, her body shivering in delighted tickles as Spike licked and treated her to his lips. It was too blissful and wholly addictive as the mission of the day began to leak from her mind.

The phone rang and Buffy shot to her feet, looking around guiltily. They kept getting caught and it was starting to give her a complex.

“You get that, ‘kay? If it’s my mom, tell her I’ve already left.” And she was gone, a physically frustrated slayer off to move her family in the crispy-making daylight.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Riley had been studying the house for an hour now, listening all the while to a baby gurgling, crying, laughing, and then sleeping. He knew because the vampire went out in the shade to puff on a cigarette and thankfully, spoke to himself. Riley didn’t stop to consider how bizarre that concept was—an insane vampire. He could only guess at how dangerous they were.

He felt a little nervous now that he was about to go through with the plan. Buffy really hadn’t given him any reason to think she was evil—that she would let any harm come to an innocent baby. Maybe she didn’t have to, though. Maybe the fact that she’d tied herself to a notoriously dangerous vampire—and now that he saw him in the flesh he knew exactly who he was—was proof enough that she was bad. At the very least, unhinged.

With a confident step, taser in his hand and held partially behind his leg, Riley approached the smoking vampire. He hadn’t worked out an in depth plan, and was more than a little glad that he wasn’t going to come across Buffy during this mission. If all went well, the vamp shouldn’t recognise him and he wouldn’t be caught by the bonafide humans in the group—but he was carefully optimistic of impending success now the baby was asleep and the defenceless vampire was exposed near to sunlight.

He flinched as amber eyes alternated with frozen blue, finding his feet less cooperative than he would like as he came to an almost stumbling stop two feet away. Still in a patch of pure sunlight. The two just stood unmoving, staring and sizing each other up. The standoff was broken with an indelicate sniff and then the vampire was laughing heartily, his cigarette falling unnoticed to the ground as he buckled over with mirth.

“Oh, oh that’s rich. And how is good ole Harm these days?”

Riley fell back, stunned that his new girlfriend wasn’t so much of a secret as he would have liked. He had a new mission now. Get the baby, and then report Hostile 17’s whereabouts to his team. Unless he doubled back and dusted him first.

“She…she’s… none of your business, that’s what.” Riley’s lips thinned and he tightened his grip on his taser, eager to just get this moving before the baby woke up and he had an audience he wouldn’t want to have to explain things to.

“So you've discovered the only two things Harm is good for, yeah? And I’m not getting at those two messy pinpricks on your neck. Harm always was a bit sloppy with her food. I was talking about her lollypop taste in bed linens being enough to make a poor bastard question his orientation. That and blow jobs. She’s a real pro at that one. Buffy tells me she got a lot of practise with being a cheerleader.”

“Shut up. What would you know anyway? You’re nothing like her.” Riley stood centred in his rage, anger that his belief in the good that could be Harmony was being challenged. Not to mention this evil filth just called his girl a whore.

Spike ignored the tantrum, casually stomping on the lingering light of his cigarette butt and tucking his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Word to the wise, mate. Stay away from the bleeding unicorns. What the bint will ask you to do with those things will do your head in."

Riley blinked, already having a faint clue what that warning was about. He then decided it was time and zapped the vampire with his hidden taser, taking him unawares by standing there looking too stupid to move.

Spike hit the cement with a gurgle of agony, his eyes rolling back in his head and his throat muscles seized right before he lost consciousness. Riley trusted enough in the taser’s abilities that he turned his back without caution and made his way into the apartment. Minutes later he left with the sleeping Lia in his arms and a baby bag stacked with essential equipment over his shoulder.

He paused at the supine form of Hostile 17, grinned at the approaching sun as it melted the shadows away, and walked on.

Maybe nature would take care of the abomination before he even got back.
 

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Spike? Oh my God, Spike.” Buffy dropped to her knees, checking Spike over before grabbing his arms and quickly dragging him away from the sunlight that had started to singe the elbow of his duster.

She bumped her head against the door of Giles’s apartment, muttering a particularly feral curse word before a vicious kick almost had it put a hole in the internal wall with the violence of its swing back. Struggling through the opening, Buffy swung a look around the room behind her, noticing straight off that Lia wasn’t on the play gym or sitting up in her rocker. The only other option was that she was asleep—if there were any options beyond that option, she needed a couple of brandies to contemplate it.

Spike was coming around as his head hit the carpet and Buffy flew up the stairs to check the crib. The first thing that hit him was a scream that nearly pierced his eardrums, a thundering roar of a heartbeat, and pain enough to entice his demon to the fore. Only after the initial excitement of being a soulless demon that had once thrived on that scent had washed over him did he recognise that it belonged to Buffy. His mate was terrified and then the events between himself and Harmony’s new plaything came rushing back in technicolour.

“Spike?”

He started up the stairs at a bolt just as Buffy thumped her way back down, nearly knocking him off his feet as she launched herself at him with a terrified whimper. Only the impulsive grip at the stair rail stopped him from being knocked backwards, and the way his head throbbed right now, he didn’t believe that was the best thing to add to the confusion.

“Somebody took Lia. Please tell me you saw them? I’m gonna rip their arms off. That’s what they did to thieves, isn’t it?” she sobbed, face buried in his aching chest.

“Think it was hands, pet. I saw the wanker, but I don’t know him. Caught a whiff of who he’s hangin’ out with, though.” Spike cringed at the tightening band of Buffy’s arms that squeezed him right over the spot that had been singed by the taser.

She jerked away, her eyes wide, glistening and hopeful.

“Who? Tell me who and I’ll go and beat them into a mass of bloody limbs.” She sniffled through Spike’s burst of laughter, feeling impatient and wanting to smack him. “Spike, this is no time for hysterics. Some psycho has our daughter and God knows what they are going to do to her.”

Spike’s expression softened and he looked upon his mate with relief that she was in his life, within his arms. “Don’t think there’s any danger in that, luv. I’m thinking this is Harm’s harebrained scheme to get yours truly back. She prolly thinks that if she has my baby, I’ll go rushing off to her. Bint’s not right in the head.”

Buffy’s countenance changed in a terrifying instant. “Harmony? As in half-wit Harmony with the boob job? She is going to be so much dust!” Without another word, Buffy strode determinedly toward her chest of weapons and loaded up on stakes. She threw Spike a crossbow without even looking behind her, continuing with a short-handled sword as soon as she heard the smack of his hand catching it.

Marching back toward the door, she stopped in a furious rush. The sun shone down and turned her hair into a crown of light.

“Crap. The sun’s still out.” Buffy’s lip trembled as she thought of Lia, kidnapped and afraid of those that had taken her for no reason but to be a pawn in an undead woman’s games.

Not even realising how strung up she was, the tension suddenly dissipated the second Spike pulled her back into the shade and hugged her.

“It’s alright, Buffy. I know where they’ll be. Harm would have been using the boy just to do her dirty work, knowing she wouldn’t have much chance during the day with both of us around Lia. She’s not going to risk hurting her until she knows she can’t get me back. By that time you’ll have put a very elegantly carved stake straight through her unbeating heart. Sound good?”

Buffy sniffled but nodded, deciding to go back inside and round up the posse. Her mom and Giles would be so mad, and despite everything, she didn’t think Xander and Willow were so angry with her over the new path her life had taken with Spike that they wouldn’t help her get Lia back She was sure they’d still help her and just about all of them would love to give Harmony some of the hell she’d given them in High School.

Her friends were more enthusiastic about the prospect of Harmony payback than Buffy had expected, and without even asking they had all volunteered to gather and complete the group. Iron mask of anger in place, Buffy waited out the day. There was no way she was going to let that brainless bimbo steal her family. She may be using Lia as collateral to get Spike back, but Buffy was going to make her see the error of her ways—even if she would only have the lesson for seconds before the idiot dusted at Buffy’s feet.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Riley couldn’t believe his luck. The baby had stayed sleeping throughout his heroic dash into the sun and then a short period of college errands before he could take her to Harm. They’d arranged for Riley to take the baby to the caves where Harmony lived, the human having so much belief in his girlfriend and the satisfaction she got through being his lover that he didn’t even think back-up would be necessary. Being seized at the throat by her less than intelligent minions came as a bit of a shock.

For the first time since he’d felt the sharp sting of her fangs in his neck, the terrifying reality of being around vampires struck home and Riley found he was unable to stop the shakes that suddenly whipped through his large body. He was unused to facing the enemy without his fancy weapons and his crew. His level of strength seemed to be nothing against these, even if they were mostly brainless halfwits.

“Harm?” He couldn’t fully accept that this was her plan all along, not until his wrists were slapped in cuffs and he was chained to the cave wall, Harmony slinking forward in a candy pink negligee, her breasts bulging from the top.

“Oh Rileykins, I’m just taking precautions.” She smiled sweetly, her hand stroking his hard chest before she gently nibbled at his bottom lip. Then she stepped back and eyed him sadly before glancing at the carrier that held the baby. The baby who was much paler now and whose hair was a startling shade of white. “Oh, that is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” she gushed, but then turned on that apologetic expression again as she tried to explain.

“You see, I love my Blondie Bear, and I just know he can’t possibly feel anything for that horrible slayer. And everyone knows that Buffy is like the kiss of death for any vampire. She sent her first boyfriend to Hell you know.” She paused, a little tiny scrap of justice making her feel a twinge of guilt before she shrugged it off and refocused on her objective. “Sure, he might have been trying to unleash Hell on earth, but what kind of girl kills the vamp she loves? It’s only a matter of time. If Spikey stays with her, he’ll end up in an urn. I just can’t let that happen.” She sniffed pathetically, rubbing her cheeks with a silky pink cloth before turning back to her hapless victim.

“He’ll be here soon, and then I can show him just how much I love him. If he wants the brat so bad, we can raise her together. With a bit of luck he won’t though, and then we can just eat her and get on with travelling to France.” Just like that she was happy and excited again, giggling and spinning in eager circles waiting for Spike to return to her. “I mean, it was nice. You know, you and me. I had fun. And if Spike wasn’t so old-fashioned and could go for a more open relationship, I’d probably like to keep you. I’m sorry.”

Now there was just one obstacle.

She turned to her minions and waved a dismissive hand. “Sic him, Rex.”

Riley screamed and let loose his bladder as the bigger most menacing vampire closed in and began chewing on his neck. The pain played on his erotic sensitivities and even as Riley felt his heart struggling against the loss of blood, his cock swelled and shot a last hurrah. His weakness was almost complete when the oaf sucking the life out of him disappeared in a hazy cloud of dust. Lazy eyelids barely allowed him to see his saviour before he blacked out. But there was no not recognising that mightily pissed off expression.

“Buffy,” he whispered and then promptly fainted.

“Want me to take him down, Buff?” called Xander, bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was in the middle of a hyper sugar fix and remarkably Spike-like.

“Nah. Let him hang.” And Buffy stomped up to Harmony and punched her hard on the nose.

Blood gushed and she shouted and cried, stumbling and accidentally kicking the baby carrier. “Ooh, ooh stay back. I have the baby…you, you vamp killer you.”

“Yeah, duh. Slayer! I’ll give you one chance to give me my baby back, then I’m making a really big hole where your heart used to be. Oh wait, you never really had one, did you?” Buffy’s face was set with lines of fury, every muscle tense and just aching for the chance to start making with the fighty.

Harmony picked up the baby, jostling her carelessly in an effort to step back and out of the way of Buffy’s possible fists. If she knew anything—other than she’d made a grave tactical error in trying to win back Spike—it was that Little Miss Dogooder wouldn’t attack her while she held a baby.

She just didn’t figure on anyone else being able to get to her first.

Lia woke with a blistering shriek, fear carrying her pitch higher and higher until the vampires in the room had fallen to their knees. Despite Harmony being the closest to the baby, she just cried her fear as she watched her minions’s heads swell like a balloon and then explode in spectacular fashion, one after the other.

The fear had momentarily masked the physical pain, but once the decibels had reached a certain level, there was no ignoring the destruction any longer. The subcutaneous layer of her face shifted—and not in a vampy way. Harmony let loose a bloodcurdling scream as her body jittered and shook, her head jerking side to side and her hair standing up on end. Spike darted forward and grabbed Lia, just as Harmony lost any control she might have had on her fate and her head went up in massive burst of flame, hair and finally, dust. Her body disintegrated and the group of fighters stood and watched stunned as the last clouds of dust rained gently down upon them, leaving them coughing and waving to clear the air.

Xander’s mouth flapped open before he snapped it shut, not being able to find one coherent thing to say about the ditzy girl who got to never grow up.

“Whoa,” gasped Willow, and Buffy found herself nodding in shocked agreement. “Oh hey, Spike, how come yours is the only vamp head that didn’t go kablooey?”

Spike looked up from checking all Lia’s fingers and toes to find all the Scoobies staring at him. The watcher was looking quite complexed, if not a little disappointed.

“What’s that?” he asked, happy now that Lia had calmed down as soon as she was in her daddy’s arms and that god awful screech had withered away and died.

Before the question could be repeated, and before the mystification could get any deeper, Buffy strolled over to her vampy mate and plucked out the earplugs from his ears.

Understanding dawned. “Neato,” Willow approved.

“Just can’t get rid of you now, can we?” Xander said with a smile, shrugging just as Buffy was about to share a piece of her not so complimentary mind with him. He seemed jovial though, so she let it go.

“Well, I guess now that the baddies have been taken care of, it’s time for the high calorie celebration party.” Enthusiastic nods met Xander’s suggestion and people filed out—until a groan from the hanging figure on the cave wall stopped them short.

“Isn’t that the TA from our psychology course?” Buffy asked, anger and fire making her move closer as she contemplated a swift and painful punishment, preferably with a sharp boot to the crotch.

Willow got up close, looking at his pale face and nodding sharply. “Yup. What should we do with him?”

Spike growled, and through their link Buffy felt exactly what he’d like to do to the naïve idiot.

Undoing the chains and smiling in satisfaction as Riley hit the deck hard, they left him, putting his life into his own hands. If fate thought he should be punished some more, they’d send a new rush of demons in on him. If not, he could get himself home and hopefully learn that vampires shouldn’t be played around with.

That thought put an evil glint in her eye and Buffy thought it was high time to rush out of there. She had her baby, she had her Spike and she had a life to get on with living. Was it her fault that she wanted to live it sweaty and writhing in pleasure?

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Gahhhhhhh—“

They heard the scream just as a knuckle was about to scrape against the front door. True, the place was huge and wasn’t filled with much furniture yet, giving the sound more of an echo, but visitors had found to their detriment that dropping in unannounced was really really bad. High on the risky side of things to catch the couple naked. And sometimes even worse.

“How long is this newly mated sexiness thing going to go on?” Xander asked, exasperation making him pull at his hair.

The group had started walking back down the drive, Willow and Tara holding a walking Lia’s hand as they took her back to the car. Willow giggled nervously as she looked at the child that so resembled her parents, marvelling at how clear and blue her eyes were as she wobbled happily over the gravel.

“I have a sinking suspicion that their sexiness is never going to calm down so much as keep things interesting. Do you actually notice how they look at each other?” Willow was happy for them. She’d never thought Spike could be such a loving creature, or such a generous and thoughtful one. Nine months on and his help in fighting evil was nothing short of miraculous for the change. And he loved Buffy. There was nothing clearer or more dependable than that. This one time monster was devoted to his mate and his daughter. It sometimes robbed Willow of breath to see it.

“I don’t live in Sunnydale, Will. And to see THAT, I’d be living somewhere a little wetter than Egpyt. Please allow me to keep swimming in de river. I didn’t do anything to you!”

Willow giggled, knowing that by now Xander was as knowing and insightful on the strange relationship as the rest of them. It was just cute for him to keep pretending that he knew nothing.

“Well, as nice as it is for Buffy to live with multiple orgasms while we are babysitting, I’m missing out on many of mine. So, what are we going to do?” Anya tapped her foot as the girls placed Lia back in her carseat, waiting for their offer to take over kiddy duty so she could take Xander back home and teach him what all the fuss was about.

“Well, we can’t just drop her off with Giles. He and Joyce are just as bad as Buffy and Spike—“ Willow started before Tara interrupted with a kind smile.

“I-it’s okay. We’ll take her. I’m sure B-Buffy will come and pick her up pretty soon anyway. They probably just l-lost track of t-time.” Tara ducked behind Willow, waiting for the final decision.

“See Xander, they’ve offered, so there’s no need for guilt to put you off giving me orgasms. Now let’s go.”

Willow watched open mouthed as Anya dragged her male-shaped friend away and left her at the side of a giggling Tara. “O-kay…I guess we should go home too?”

“Uhuh,” Tara agreed and they bundled back into Giles’s new car and carefully drove back to campus. They were both convinced Buffy would be by some time that night. Really.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Did you hear something?” Buffy looked at Spike, exhaustion making it difficult to keep her eyes open but the thrumming of post-orgasmic tingles throughout her body kept her semi-alert.

“Before or after the ‘Spike, more, gahhhhhh’? Only bell I heard ringing was definitely not the doorbell.”

Buffy giggled and rolled over to rub her body against his, loving the feel of their nakedness and the zing of his touch on her skin. “I guess we’ve got time for some more lovin’ then before the guys bring Lia home.”

Spike smirked, his gaze burning hotly over Buffy’s exposed flesh. “I do like the way you think, luv.”

And Buffy never noticed when night snuck in to consume day, and then when the light fought against the night. When she did finally notice the time, and worked out what day it was, she was incredibly grateful that she a close enough relationship with her friends, her watcher and her mother that Lia wouldn’t mind so much if she spent longer than usual with any of them.

She’d come so far. From a slayer who hated with a passion the one vampire who never acted like he should, to being at one with him and allowing him to love her with an even greater passion.

Oh yeah, life was beyond good. It was perfect.
 

The end.